Iran Executes 24-Year-Old Woman After Court Rejects Her Self-Defense Plea

Iranian authorities have executed 24-year-old Marzieh Nayeri after a court rejected her claim that she killed her husband while defending herself during an alleged sexual assault.

Nayeri was executed at dawn on Saturday, August 8, 2026, at Qazvin Central Prison, also known as Choobindar Prison, according to human rights organizations HRANA and Hengaw.

Rights groups said Nayeri had been a victim of child marriage. Her family reportedly forced her to marry a man named Davoud when she was just 17.

The case dates back to October 2021, when Nayeri was 18. According to the account she gave in court, her husband returned home with an associate named Alireza, who allegedly attempted to sexually assault her while her husband was present.

Nayeri said she fought back with a kitchen knife, injuring Alireza before using the same knife to kill her husband.

She later went to her brother’s home and surrendered to police four days after the incident.

During the trial, Nayeri reportedly told the court that she had previously faced repeated attempts at sexual assault by her husband’s friends and had used the knife to protect herself.

However, Alireza, who survived the stabbing, disputed her account. He allegedly claimed that Nayeri had been involved with another man and had intended to kill her husband.

The court rejected Nayeri’s self-defense argument and sentenced her to death under Iran’s qisas, or retribution, laws. The victim’s relatives also reportedly refused to forgive her.

Hengaw described Nayeri as a 24-year-old victim of child marriage following news of her execution.

Human rights organizations say the case highlights broader concerns over how Iranian courts handle women who kill men while claiming they were defending themselves against sexual violence.

Her case has also been compared with that of Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was executed in Iran in 2014 after maintaining that she had killed a man who attempted to rape her.

Rights advocates have criticized Iran’s legal system, saying women can face significant difficulties when trying to prove sexual assault or establish self-defense. 

They also point to evidentiary requirements under Iran’s Islamic Penal Code that can make sexual assault cases particularly difficult to prove.

Iranian state media had not released an official statement regarding Nayeri’s execution at the time of the reports.